Tom Hyry (MILS '96) is the Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library, Harvard University, where he provides leadership and direction for all of the library’s collections, services, and programs. Houghton Library is Harvard’s distinguished repository for rare books and manuscripts, including those of the Harvard Theatre Collection, the Woodberry Poetry Room and the collections of Samuel Johnson, Emily Dickinson, Theodore Roosevelt, T.S. Eliot, Henry James, James Joyce and others.

Prior to joining the Houghton Library, Hyry had been director of special collections at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library. At UCLA, Hyry led the integration of five formerly separate units into a single, library-wide special collections department of 40 staff members dedicated to acquiring, preserving and providing access to the University’s rare books, archives, manuscripts and historical materials. Hyry oversaw the UCLA Library’s long-range and annual planning, fundraising, collection development and coordination of special collections services and programs with other library and campus groups.

Prior to his work at UCLA, Hyry spent 13 years at Yale University, where he was head of the manuscript unit at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and, in a separate position, was head of arrangement and description in the Manuscripts & Archives department.

He holds a BA in history from Carleton College and a Masters in Information and Library Studies from the University of Michigan. He notes he is one of the last to receive the MILS degree from this institution.